Greetings
i don't know if anybody else on the list lives in England, but there was
just a TV program that relates quite well to this thread. It was called
"Futurecast", and the plot was as follows:
In 2012, gene therapy is available to cure illnesses. One man has leukemia,
but like many, can't afford the £250000 for the cure. Therefore, along with
a pirate TV whistleblower, the dying man and his wife kidnap the CEO of the
pharmaceutical company that offers the treatment in a bid to get the cure
for her husband. Of course it goes wrong, but in the process, the arguments
for and against this Global capitalist are put forward.
1) He actively lobbied against other firms looking to make the cure
cheaper - thereby keeping his own profit - the evil=sending another man to
die when he could cure him or make the cure available, - the root=his own
desire for wealth
2) He plundered the gene data itself from dedveloping countries
without really paying them - the evil=not caring about the lives of other
indigenous people and their rights eg. stealing their blood, - the root=his
own desire for wealth
As I write, other items of this tirade against global corporatism and
standard economics which actually widens the gap between haves and have-nots
slip my mind. But in the case of Britain, that gulf nowadays is wider than
ever before, despite what global politicians say about the increase in the
middle ground. I thought that fits in to this now dying thread.
But another point raised in the program was that of unnatural selection - of
choosing the genes according to some pre-packaged idea of quality, and the
discrimantion that then results from not having the same genetic "quality"
as other people eg. with health insurance, in getting jobs. That surely is
not Quality? I seem to remember a recent posting saying that only
distinguishable things exist, and if one value/quality can not be
distinguished from another then it does not exist. therefore, if all humans
conformed to the same genetic quality, humans in the genetic form would not
exist. I'm not sure that that follows, but IMHO (I got an acronym in) if all
people were genetically the same, then humanity would no longer exist, as
all that then could shape a person's quality would be environmental factors,
and if the environmental factors diverted them to what might be seen by some
as negative quality to their use, then what the hell, dispose of them, we
have more of them same in a warehouse somewhere.
I wonder if that makes sense to anybody else. I look forward to hearing your
ideas.
Bye
Si
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